Monthly Archives: February 2011

The Usual Suspects in the Online Garden of Social Media


Nurturing existing relationships into referral sources is akin to growiSocial Media and Gardening are Similiar - it takes timeng a garden. Nothing worthwhile  happens overnight, but it’s well worth the effort when the fruits appear. Fruit from your own garden usually tastes better, is less expensive than buying from the store, and is just a few steps from your kitchen. Often your online neighbors (clients, friends and family) lend you the ground and even plant the seeds, but you have to provide the water (online content) and fertilizer (caring, reliable and honest service).

Online social networking sites act as little plots of land for your garden. Here’s my recommended list of sites to establish a presence on, even if you don’t update all of them regularly. I choose these sites because they tend to show up well on Google Searches (sooner than later), with or without long tail keyword research. If you have SEO information, by all means include it in your text.

 Social Networking

1.      Facebook Personal Profile

2.      Facebook “Like” Page (business)

3.      LinkedIn

4.      Biznik

 

            Blogs

1.      Twitter (it’s a micro-blog, technically!)

2.      Posterous (if you can use email, you can use this blog system)

 

Review/Recommendation/Misc Sites

1.      Yelp

2.      Google Place Page (see the article I wrote on Place Pages here)

  Every effective marketing plan in this modern age should include a corporate social media campaign, and I highly recommend the elements above to be included. Good luck!

Why Being on the 1st Page of Google is Important

Google Homepage

At the risk of stating the obvious, it is important to be on the first page of a Google search. Quite often it’s easy to get there using social media, if only for your own name and/or the name of your company.

But these days, part of any effective marketing plan must include online visibility from a search perspective. And it has to be relevant to your customers, services and products. And most of all, to you as the one being referred.

Still dragging your heels? Here’s a few points to consider:

You may rely on referrals, but those referrals now rely on the Internet

A few years ago, some of my current clients would have told me they didn’t need a website. They got plenty of referrals. In fact, they didn’t really need any marketing at all, they were so busy. But all that has changed. The referrals have dried up, and they were left high and dry without any real marketing experience. These business owners eventually turned to traditional marketing, but it didn’t work “like it used to.”

Validation vs. Reality

Few people these days are unscathed by some kind of scam. It’s hard to know who to trust. Consumers often want to validate that amazing offer they just saw on TV, and these days, probably even what their friends are recommending. And certainly the post card a company sent them (assuming they didn’t just throw that out).

Even the best provider of a service on the planet is going to get checked over on the Internet first, these days, before a call is made to set up an appointment. What will the prospect find? Will they be able to validate some reason to use your services or purchase your products? Or will they decide you must be out of business since they couldn’t find a website (or you) after a cursory search online? It may not be true, but if someone can’t find you online, you just may not exist.

If you aren’t in the room with the prospect, how are you going to sell anything?

Think of the Internet as a room with 10 possible solutions in it to the searcher’s problem. Pretty simple math. If you’re solution number 11, you’re on the 2nd page. Might as well be solution number 72.

These days there are all sorts of solutions to getting online visibility, even if you don’t have a website. While it helps to be adept at long tail keyword research, use the power of large sites like Google (Place Pages), Facebook (Like Pages) and Yelp (review website) to carve out a bit of real estate quickly.

Google Places

Not sure where to start? Google Place Pages is pretty easy! To get started, search “Google Place Pages” and you’ll locate all sorts of information about it.

Canon DSLR Boot Camp Feb 5th

Canon DSLR Boot Camp by The Association at EVS
Once again we are having our now famous Canon DSLR 5D Boot Camp at EVS in Burbank for
film and television professionals.

Are you thinking about shooting with the Canon 1D, 5D, or 7D DSLR cameras? Are you going to use it for principle photography, 2nd unit photography, multi-cam, background plates or SPFX shots?

Don’t fumble in the dark. Learn everything you need in our Canon camera classes. A number of our graduates, now with Canon certification by The Association, have gotten work because they were trained on the Canon 5D. You can too!

Click here to access the Official Registration Page:

AT THE END OF THE DAY YOU’LL HAVE THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS AND MORE

1. What’s the best setup of the camera?

2. How does DSLR compare to RED in terms of quality?

3. Can I mix DSLR footage with the RED or film?

4. What are the best lenses to use?

5. Can I use a Follow Focus?

6. Can I use available light to shoot and lower my lighting budget?

7. What is the transcoding process?

8. Can I use HDLRs for Timelapse?

9. What are the limitations of the 4:2:0 color space?

10. What’s the best support & handheld rigging?

11. What should I look for when choosing a shoulder mount solution?

12. Should I shoot “flat” or not?

13. Can I quickly mount the camera on a car or boat?

14. Does the CMOS sensor overheat and affect the image quality?

15. How do I monitor the image?

16. How do I set exposure?

17. What’s the best viewfinder?

18. Does the new firmware provide histograms?

19. Are there any particular lighting setups that are optional for HDSLR’s?

20. Do I use Auto Metering?

21. What is my post workflow…the different codecs and frame rates?

22. How do I handle audio?

23. What kind of memory cards do I use?

24. What do I use to offload the cards in the field?

25. What are the absolute essential accessories for making an HDSLR cinema capabCanon DSLR Boot Camp at EVSle?

26. How do I address moiré and aliasing issues?

27. How do I manage the rolling shutter issue?

Click here to access the Official Registration Page